Few questions after first time root

Yee ha, used the idiot proof tutorial to root(was just unrevoked) for the first time..piece of cake. Used it to flash Fresh.

Questions from a root newb. When I see other things such as a kernel to allow overclocking etc, how do I get that onto the phone? Do you just pretend it's a rom and flash it that way, or is it another method? I know one of the roms out there has an optional oc kernel download. Will that work with that rom only or with any you wish?

Little things..the one I can think of right now is 360 degree screen rotation..are those types of things such that you need to find a particular rom that enables them(in this case 360 rotation) or are there root apps or other ways via root that get such things done?

Sense is apparently editable in some ways, as Fresh has a modified launcher bar at the bottom. {nevermind I think..guess 'Espresso' is new/future skin of Sense'} Is there a way for someone to create rom with ability to edit it to add user(or just the rom overlord making such changes) customization ability found on such launchers as adw and Launcher Pro such as customizable dock bars, landscape homescreens, # of screens, removing icon labels, customizing screen transitions and so on? Only reason I care is that I hate losing some of the HTC widgets when using other launchers and it's apparently impossible to use their widgets on another launcher. LOVE the news widget and haven't found a suitable replacement.

Also saw something about Vanilla lock..is that just a customizable lock screen? How do you install and where do you find?

Backups- The tut said in Titanium Backup batch to click 'backup apps.' So my apps were all there but all settings were lost when I flashed. So is 'backup apps + system data' what I need to do instead? Surely you don't have to try and remember all the settings you'd set every time you flash a new rom right? And running batch to restore is that the quickest way? I still had to go through prompts to install everything which takes awhile.